


The Sun, After the Long Winter

by dixiehellcat



Series: Tony Stark Bingo Round 4 [18]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Gen, Grocery Shopping, Iron Family, Lost children, Parental Panic, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Precious Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Recovery, idk them, the Russos whomst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 18:21:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29737941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dixiehellcat/pseuds/dixiehellcat
Summary: Tony and Morgan go to buy juice pops and end up with a little more. Follows Heed, Our Hearts, To Reap the Best (https://archiveofourown.org/works/29625228) and thus fits as part of my Equilibrium post-Endgame AU verse, but works fine as a standalone!Fills the "doing groceries" square on my Round 4 Tony Stark Bingo card number 4028. (required info collected below)
Relationships: Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark Bingo Round 4 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009245
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo Mark IV





	The Sun, After the Long Winter

**Author's Note:**

> Bingo specifics:
> 
> Title: The Sun, After the Long Winter  
> Author: deehellcat  
> Card Number: 4028  
> Link (AO3, Tumblr, etc.) https://archiveofourown.org/works/29737941  
> Square Filled (Letter AND number AND prompt) R5, doing groceries  
> Ship/Main Pairing: Tony and Morgan  
> Rating (Gen, Teen, Mature, Explicit) gen  
> Major Tags/Warnings/Triggers: PTSD, Precious Morgan Stark, Grocery Shopping, Parental Panic, Recovery. Lost Children, Canon Divergence--post-Endgame, the Russos whomst, idk them, Iron Family  
> Summary: Tony and Morgan go to buy juice pops and end up with a little more.  
> Word Count: 1142

Tony would have sworn, on nearly anything on offer, that he had never felt so pinned down in the spotlight at any Stark Industries gala or Avengers function, never felt so stared at by any crowd hungry for a brush with celebrity, as he did pushing a cart with one wonky wheel down the aisle of a half-empty Shop-Mart on a random Thursday afternoon. He refused to allow himself to dwell on it, because he had a far more important target to focus on: the tiny girl capering down the aisles, examining every package and asking questions right and left. She’d probably want a nap when they got home, more than the juice pops they had come to buy. Oh, who was he kidding; he was the one who was going to need the nap. Maybe Pepper was right, and he had become a hermit.

The juice pops had been procured almost immediately, but Tony had decided while they were surprising Pepper with not needing to go to the grocery herself, they might as well go all in. To that end, he had picked up a plump roasted chicken from the cooker in the back of the store, some broccoli salad, and a tub of premade mashed potatoes (he figured he could google the appropriate add-on seasonings, pimp them out, and look suitably like he’d been slaving over a hot stove by the time Pep got home). 

It was harder for him to say no to Morgan’s choices; he knew he spoiled her sometimes, but she had quite the adventurous palate for a preschooler. What kind of dad would he be if he didn’t encourage her to try new things? Besides, he was always on hand to polish off the wasabi peas if, as he suspected, one bite bit back and she dropped them. He was ready to put his foot down and head for the checkout when he remembered Pep had been sighing for guacamole. As it happened, that was one of the few dishes he actually did know how to prepare, and well. ‘One more stop, Morgoona,” he called and turned the cart toward the produce section.

Tony’s prosthetic hand was more finely tuned with every tweak and upgrade he made, but it still wasn’t quite where he wanted it, so he defaulted to his left in carefully squeezing avocadoes and gauging their ripeness. Finally, he settled on a half dozen, bagged them up and turned to plop them into the basket. “Ready to—” he started, then looked around and realized he was alone except for two older women bickering over butternut squash across the space.

A hundred thoughts raced through his head as he tried not to panic. If she were older, he’d go have the store manager page her and embarrass her in public, the way dads were supposed to do; but that would only freak her out, and one of them needed to keep a cool head. He wished now that he had made her that pretty bracelet with a tracker built in that Pep had talked him out of. _Some hero you are, Stark,_ he berated himself. _Some DAD. If I’d just distracted her when I looked in the freezer, instead of promising her we’d get juice pops…or made her ride in the basket even though she thinks it’s the baby seat…_

He spun and raced down the nearest aisle, pushing the cart with its wobbly wheel like Senna in his prime. Vaguely he registered that the plastic bag of veggies had slipped from his hand, left behind somewhere, and he wasn’t sure which one Pep would kill him quicker for, losing Morgan, or losing those perfect avocadoes. (What? When crisis hits, the brain goes weird places.) His baby was nowhere to be seen, and he was half a beat away from whipping the cover off the repulsor he’d built into his arm on the sly, letting off a blast into the ceiling, and yelling I’M TONY FUCKING STARK AND THE FIRST PERSON TO BRING MY LOST KID TO ME GETS A THOUSAND DOLLARS CASH ON THE SPOT, GO. 

Just then, two small figures came around the corner at the far end of the aisle. Morgan was holding hands with a tiny boy whose face was red, his nose running and his huge dark eyes full of tears. “Daddy!” she cried when she saw him, her little voice full of distress. “This is Ahmad. He’s lost! He came with his uncle but we can’t find him.”

All the adrenalin drained out through Tony’s toes. He crouched to greet the child. “Hey, buddy. Nice to meetcha. We’ll help you out, I promise.” Five-year-olds didn’t think to check customer service, of course, which was where Ahmad’s uncle was, looking about as wild-eyed as Tony knew he himself had been minutes ago. Reunions made, he took Morgan firmly by the hand and pulled the cart off to the side. “Morgan, you need to stay with me when we go out. For—any number of reasons, not least of which being, you nearly gave your old man a heart attack, when I couldn’t find you.”

“But if I had, I wouldn’t have found Ahmad, and we wouldn’t have found his uncle so he could go home. What if nobody had come to help him? I couldn’t leave him sad like that!” 

Tony sighed. She was entirely too much like him in too many ways. “No, you’re right about that. It’s a good thing, what you did. Just…stick close, for me, okay?”

“Were you really scared, daddy?”

Kids, man. Were they born with this unerring gift for piercing right through absolutely all bullshit? “Yes, as a matter of fact, I was scared, when I didn’t know where you were.”

The little face turned up to his was grave. “I’m sorry. When those people came, and you left later and mommy didn’t know if you were coming back, I was scared. I don’t want you to be scared like that because of me, not ever.” 

Morgan threw herself into his arms, which was good, because that way she wouldn’t notice him blinking back tears and trying to breathe normally. “Okay,” he croaked after a minute, then cleared his throat and gave it another shot. “Okay, well, we’ve scared each other then, so we’re even. Let’s not do this again, right?”

“Right,” she agreed, and walked beside him while they went to retrieve Pepper’s avocadoes. “The juice pops are melting,” she observed when she poked the damp box in the basket. 

“Probably. What say we head home and see if we can science something up to flash-freeze them?”

“Yay, science!” she cheered and danced off toward the checkout. Tony shook his head. It was exhausting, being a parent, more so than fighting most supervillains, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything.


End file.
